Institutionalised deliveries declined to 65 percent from 72 percent triggering maternal mortality rates from 350 to 960 deaths per every 100 000 live births during the same period.

Sarudzai Makiwa, a mother of a three-year-old boy recalls with a shudder the hell she went through when she had her first child.

“Considering how getting money has been a problem to me, I was always going to try and come when labour pains start. Who knows what could have happened in-between had I not been booked here knowing how bad our roads are?” queried the mother who has given birth to her three children by caesarean section.

She recalls the scramble for a few rooms that women crowded in when she had her first baby.

“You were lucky to be in. We are now also being given food, sleeping on beds not floor, have mosquito nets and using the flush system. Then we were paying maternal user fees but not anymore. Here I receive most of the care I need before I leave”.

The Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey for 2010-2011 revealed that only 28 percent of women received a post-natal check-up within two days of delivery as recommended and 57 percent do not have a postnatal check-up at all.

Makiwa is among the close to 90 000 beneficiaries of European Union (EU) grant amounting to $12, 3 million received by United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) in 2012 to support revitalisation on maternity waiting homes in Zimbabwe until 2015.

The majority of the women booked at Manama hospital need at least between $6 and $10 for a one way fare to the nearest referral centre. According to experts, a pregnant mother go for check ups twice a month on average.

Manama district nursing officer Filter Sibanda said most of the cases accommodated in the waiting homes are critical in bringing down the high maternal mortality rates.

“Most of our mothers here are the young beginners and orphans. Orphans sometimes they have no parental guidance and protection. They go around looking for food or anything until they fall pregnant”.

Health officials from both Matabeleland South and North concurred that there is normally a surge in pregnancies between September and December when men working in South Africa return home for Christmas.

The young girls are left to rue men who would have impregnated them when they flee to the neighbouring countries.

The shelters also accommodate mothers who have had caesarean babies, previously experienced postpartum bleeding and those who are carrying their fifth or sixth child.

Sibanda added, “Looking at all the scenarios I mentioned, you can tell things would be really bad without these shelters. These are poor families living in a dry land and can barely afford to seek healthcare”.

The concept of such shelters was introduced in the early 1980s but had been severed by resource constraints which affected other sectors since the fall of the new millennium.

Through the fund, UNFPA has refurbished or extended and furnished at least 74 of the targeted 103 district, mission and rural hospitals’ shelters including those at St Luke’s hospital and Manama Mission Hospital in Matabeleland North and South respectively.

At least 63 ambulances have been procured and distributed.

Over 1 000 healthcare professionals have received specialised training and mothers are receiving nutritional support such as kapenta, beans and maize.

The mothers also receive education on how to nurse their expected babies and prevent infections in sexual unions.

Rudo Chikodzore, Matabeleland South maternal and child health officer in the Health ministry, said accommodating caregivers of the expecting mothers is vital in making the idea of shelters comprehensive.

“Matabeleland has the highest HIV prevalence in the country and these young ones tend to be highly affected. What we have here at Manama where members of the family are allowed to stay close to the pregnant mothers is such an important positive because it gives mothers the social-psycho support they need,” she said

Lupane district medical officer Nkazimulo Tshuma said teen pregnancies have become a major force in fuelling the cycle of poverty and morbidity nationally.

“With teenage pregnancies you end maybe having more complications. At least services and safe instituionalised deliveries have increased because of the shelter. Again those children will end up not finishing school and takes away their chance to break the cycle of poverty,” said Tshuma.

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